Dawson Turner, banker, botanist, and antiquary, was an avid collector of literary and scientific books and manuscripts as well as an author of many works on antiquities and botany more specifically cryptogamic plants. This small collection of only 12 items contains letters written primarily to Jacob Henry Burn and relates to the purchase of items for Turner's vast personal library.

A variety of topics are discussed in these letters, mainly on plant specimens and botanical subjects in relation to England, India, and other parts of the world. The most voluminous correspondence is with Henry Walter Bates, Sir Henry Cole, Sir Richard Strachey, Dawson Turner, and William Crawford Williamson.

There is correspondence concerning geology, botany, natural history, natural selection, evolution, British science and scientists, and other scientific topics. Most of the letters are written by Lyell, with a very few items by others.